Рожденият ден на Моли Фокс

by Deirdre Madden, Мирела Христова (Translator)

Денят е 21 юни - лятното слънцестоене, а известният "актьор" Моли Фокс е отстъпила къщата си в Дъблин на своя приятелка, докато тя има ангажименти в Ню Йорк. Сама в къщата в деня на рождения ден на Моли, опитвайки се да довърши пиесата, която пише в момента, приятелката и размишлява върху взаимоотношенията си с нея и с отдавнашния и приятел от студентските години Андрю. В спомени за миналото тя не спира да се пита защо Моли никога не празнува рождения си ден, а собствените и приятелства и връзки от всичките тези години минават през погледа и като на длан.

"Рожденият ден на Моли Фокс" е трогателен и достоверен роман за идентичността, приятелството и за това как миналото предопределя настоящето по начин, който дори не подозираме.

"Моли Фокс" казва, че единственото, което трябва да направим с живота си, е да го изживеем... И това е казано на удивения читател от романист, който е изкусен и задълбочен наблюдател на крехката човешка природа, като едновременно с това е изпълнен с доброта и разбиране за нея"
Бърнард О'Донахю, "Айриш Таймс"

Genres: Fiction, Ireland, Literary Fiction, Irish Literature, Contemporary, Book Club, Adult Fiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Deirdre Madden is from Toomebridge, County Antrim in Northern Ireland. She was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and at the University of East Anglia. In 1994 she was Writer-in-Residence at University College, Cork and in 1997 was Writer Fellow at Trinity College, Dublin. She has travelled widely in Europe and has spent extended periods of time in both France and Italy.

Reviews

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

My copy is littered with post-it flags. Most of what I marked were passages that showed great insight into human nature. It is what I would call a quiet book and what others would call dull. The narrator reflects back on her friendships, especially with actress Molly Fox, and wonders about how well we can know the people we love.

[switterbug (Betsey) · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this contemporary but timeless novel about relationships, identity, and home, Madden embraces the acting and playwright professions as central to the exploration of the human condition. The unnamed narrator, a successful playwright originally from Northern Ireland, is staying in Dublin at Molly Fox's house while Molly is in New York. Molly is a celebrated stage actress, a woman who seems mousy and nondescript in person but is charged with charisma on-stage. Moreover, she has a bewitching voice. "At times it is infused with a slight ache, a breaking quality.... " and ..."both a visual and sensuous quality, an ability to summon up the image of the thing that the word stands for."

Molly and said narrator have been best friends for twenty years. As the narrator struggles with writer's block during her visit, she traces Molly's steps through the house, fingers her treasures, sits in her garden, and recounts their friendship. Her memories includes their mutual friend Andrew, a successful TV art historian, specializing in memorials; Fergus, Molly's troubled brother; and Tom, the narrator's devoted brother--a Catholic priest who is also a dear friend to Molly. The day in question is June 21st, Molly's birthday, a date of penetrating significance that unfolds gradually through the narrative.

Molly, Andrew, and the narrator have built firm and lucrative careers. Each has shed their native skin and taken on new identities that, paradoxically, manifest a more palpable singularity and congruity of self. Whether it is escaping traditional familial bonds or facilitating a triumph in artistic pursuits, the three friends have remained a touchstone for each other. Molly is the enigmatic force; Andrew is the medium of transformation; and the narrator relates through acute examination.

"The closer you get to Molly, " thinks the narrator, "the more she seems to recede. Sometimes she seems to me like a figure in a painting, the true likeness of a woman, but as you approach the canvas the image breaks up, becomes fragmented into the colours, the brushstrokes and the daubs of paint from which the thing itself is constructed." For Molly, the actor, the stage is a point of departure; for the playwright, it is a final destination.

The narrator's musings often settle on Andrew, whose brother was a paramilitary Loyalist in the North and a poignant source of Andrew's pain. A dissection ensues in the narrator's mind as she digs into the deepest interstices of her psyche. She fuses the artifice of stage with the authenticity of life, recalling how an actor can be removed from the stage or a person can depart from your life but leave a resounding presence. "Sometimes the most important and powerful element is an absence, a lack, a burnished space in your mind that glows and aches as you try to fill it." As several visitors drop by at the end of the day, surprised to find Molly gone, the narrator experiences some visceral and vital insights.

This kind of prose is rare and exquisite. Lean, poised, and elegant, the tenor is restrained and natural, dipped in elegiac quietude. The book packs a lot of punch in just over two hundred pages and leaves you exalted. Active silences peak into sublime epiphanies, and as the story spires, the characters inhabit you and burrow in the tender places of your heart.

[Lea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the best Deirdre Madden novel but still very good. It's a quiet slow book, introspectice and intelligent, but not very thrilling. There is not much of a story but a lot of interesting insight in reliationships and mainly friendships.

[Mae · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Molly Fox’s Birthday," by the Irish author Deidre Madden, reminded me how much pleasure one can a get out of reading a charming, well written, unfussy novel, which is no small thing and something I had very nearly forgotten. The leisurely pace and construction of the novel almost forces the reader to slow down and relax no matter how hectic things are, and remember the good things in life are the smallest: a beautiful garden, a connection between two people, even an ice cold glass of water. It’s not a good idea to start the slender book on the subway, with many distractions, like I did – you won’t want to put it down when you reach your stop and real life calls. The best place would be on holiday somewhere, or in a café, when you have the whole day before you to let the book unfurl unhurriedly. The story itself takes place over the course of one day and has the feel of a less austere “Ms. Dalloway.” The protagonist, a successful playwright, house sits for one of her closest friends, a famous theater actress, Molly Fox. Nothing much happens, yet the author manages to cover the nature of friendships, family, art, academics, success, failure, religion, even Irish political unrest – you name it. The birthday in question happens to be June 21, the summer solstice, so you still have time to pick up a copy, clear that very day and spend a few hours enjoying the charms this book while the light lingers. I couldn’t think of anything nicer.

[Priya Bhakta · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is about female friendship, it's set over the course of one day looking back in a stream-of-consciousness style. This book had a lot of qualities I'd usually look for in a book but somehow it just didn't click for me.

I never felt that connected to the Narrator and, whilst she explored herself with regard to her relationships with other people, she never seemed to have an identity of her own. As the Narrator thinks about her relationship with Molly Fox (supposedly one of her dearest friends) I found it hard to understand why I should care about either of them let alone the both of them.

It's a short read but also unsatisfying. I won't deny it's technically well written but I just didn't find it engaging.

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Molly Fox's Birthday is the first of Madden's books which I read several years ago, and remains my favourite. It is immediately entracing, and was just as good as I remembered it being upon my March 2017 reread. The structure and writing are taut, and the characters realistic. An understated novel by a similarly understated writer.

[JaneO · Rating 5 out of 5]

My little bro likened Molly Fox's Birthday to a Russian nesting doll & I wholeheartedly agree. It is beautifully crafted, quietly complex and contemplative. I didn't want it end.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in a stream of consciousness style, this novel’s action all happens in one day, but covers a lifetime of feelings and interactions between the main characters. Very insightful and an excellent read.

[Kate Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the style of writing in this book and found all three main characters really interesting. One of the best books I've read in a while.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quiet, lovely book

[Debbie Robson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is set in Dublin, midsummer and the unnamed narrator, a playwright, reflects upon her own life, Molly's and that of their mutual friend Andrew. As the back cover says: "Exploring family, friendship and love, Molly Fox's Birthday is above all a novel about identity, calling into question the ideas that we hold about who we are and showing how the past informs the present in ways we night never have imagined."

Sometimes I don't analyse why I'm drawn to a book - at least in the moments that I start to read that book. In the first paragraph I pretty much make my decision to read or not to read and so it was with this book but within the first sentence. I was immediately hooked. The narrative has a wonderful pull to it and I just couldn't put the book down. I wanted to know more about the narrator, about Molly and about Andrew and yes, Deirdre Madden does tackle her theme of identity beautifully. It's a theme I'm drawn to in my own writing and subconsciously I seem to be drawn to books that are ultimately about identity and about the past and how we relate to the past. Looking forward to reading her other novels. Highly recommended.

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wonderfully written, I just didn't care that much, about Molly, the narrator or their oddly not gay friend Andrew.

[Paul Secor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quiet, gentle novel with mystery, pain, and strength beneath its surface.

[Friederike Knabe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Molly Fox is a well known and highly respected actor. While staying in New York, her friend, a well-known playwright, preparing for her next "project", is staying in her house in Dublin. The unnamed and self-declared closest friend and admirer, is the narrator of this ode to love and friendship as she spends a day, Molly's birthday, reflecting on her friend, her own situation and the close relationships that have influenced her life since she met Molly some twenty years. Deirdre Madden draws the reader quickly into a web of memories, recollections, meandering musings that glide effortlessly from one important person in her heroine's life to another, jumping through timelines, back and forth, with the greatest speed, peeling off one layer of her inner life after another.

The house of an absent friend of long standing can easily trigger many and diffuse, even conflicting reminiscences and it does so in this novel. Molly's house, full of her assorted collectibles, is not only significant for leaving imprints of the multiple facets of the actor's very private persona that stand in sharp contrast to her public, charismatic stage image. It also plays a role as the confining stage for the narrator's imaginary play into which she summons all the primary and secondary characters that have played and/or are still playing an important role in her own complicated life. Through her heroine Madden explores the different, often seemingly incongruous personality facets that individuals in public roles, especially actors, playwrights or priests, reveal when within their private spheres, their family or close friendships.

While Molly is a constant off-stage presence and the hook, skewed mirror or screen for all the narrator's other mental stage appearances, she herself remains opaque and contradictory... Her brilliance on stage, her charismatic voice contrasts sharply with her shyness and "dowdy" appearance in a cafe next door. However, can we believe the narrator? Is she a reliable source? She appears often surprised by a new facet she has discovered in her friend over time, often referring to herself as "obtuse" when it comes to understanding Molly. She is more definite in her assessment of her other close friend, Andrew. Andrew, her old chum from university days, stands out as a pillar of a trusted friend through thick and thin and their relationship comes across as mutually enriching and supportive.

The concept of "human parallaxes" - perceived changes in the person observed from different angles - and introduced by Madden's protagonist, is more than aptly applied to all the central characters, including the narrator herself. Yet, she appears to have been the least grounded, preferring to see herself as a reflection in the eyes of her friends. She can drift in and out of reflections on what should be decisive periods in her own life, only to switch the focus quickly back on some memory concerning one of her friends. Usually placing herself into a passive observer role, she nevertheless draws attention to herself all the time. While recognizing that memories and mental journeys can play havoc with time sequences and factual probabilities, at times the narrator's associations come across as somehow too predictable, the coincidences too convenient and her self-absorption or judgmental arrogance concerning others slightly overbearing. As a result, her voice loses impact and can turn repetitive and flat instead. The day draws to a close with important questions unanswered, the narrator as central character left with less than shades of brilliance.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I have always understood the value of formulaic conversation and how it can make for real communication. Such exchanges can forge a link with someone when there is deep affection but no real common ground. Andrew, with his impatient intelligence, would never understand this. But I know Molly would agree with me. Her relationship with Fergus is built upon a similar visceral warmth, the childhood bond that has never been broken. Closeness of that particular type is perhaps only possible with people one has known all one’s life, when the bonds have been made before something in one’s soul has been closed down by consciousness, by knowledge; a kind of closeness that can coexist even with dislike. Perhaps this was something that Andrew could understand, perhaps this was why he was haunted by the thought of Billy, but I wasn't sure that I could explain it to him.

This is one of the reflections on life, relationships, art, and human purpose that fill Molly Fox's Birthday, a lovely novel from among the 2008 Orange Prize shortlist selections. I read it over a couple of days, and found myself eager to return to it, despite any real driving plot. The characters are insightfully drawn, and the language flows smoothly, creating beautiful images along the way. I am not a gardener, but I found myself wanting to plant some of the flowers Deirdre Madden described in passing. The story is the tale of a single day in the life of a playwright who is staying at a friend's home while she is away, struggling to begin a new play in the wake of a recent flop. The tiny details of the day prompt reflections on a myriad of topics--the most powerful of which is the window friendship creates into another life, and the degree to which the window may be opaque--sometimes more than we know. The home is the home of the playwright's best friend--Molly Fox, a brilliant actress but also a shy and complex character. The occasion of her birthday prompts many of the reflections in the tale, and also provides a reason for several people to stop by--including Molly's brother Fergus, another old mutual friend Andrew, who is now a successful art critic and media darling. The tale also draws indirectly on the tensions of Northern Ireland, from which both Andrew and the playwright come, he a Protestant, she a Catholic. Molly is from Dublin.

I recommend this quiet but beautiful novel for a break in a frenzied schedule sometime when you need it!

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is set in one day, Molly Fox's Birthday. Her friend has come to stay in her house while she is away in New York. Her friend is working on her new play and as the day moves on she is recalling how she and Molly met when Molly was the lead in her first play and also how other friends and lovers through the years have impacted on her life.She is also thinking about her own family and those of her close friends, Molly whose house she is staying in and Andrew whom she met while at college in Trinity. In the course of the day she also has some visitors to Mollys house and these visits also cause her to reflect on her life and theirs and the overlapping of both. The narrator of this story is never named and this fact only hit home to me as I got close to the end of the book. She draws us into her life with all its many facets, exposes herself to us, good and bad, is very honest in her feelings about herself and the complexities of some of her relationships and her upbringing, about her place in her family and about life in general and friendships in particular. I enjoyed the stories she told and the insights she gave to subjects as diverse as Religion, The Troubles in Northern Ireland, Friendship, Love, Family and her writing. It was like meeting someone on holidays or in a hospital and they tell you so much about themselves and their life and then you never see them again. It was an enjoyable, entertaining and insightful read.

[Nathalie (keepreadingbooks) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Given the title, it’s easy to think that Molly Fox is the central ‘subject’, if I may, of this book. But (in my humble opinion) she’s used more as a framework than anything else; a framework for themes of family, friendship, identity and love – the good *and* the bad sides of each. Molly Fox’ house and birthday set off a string of memories that in many ways are related to the narrator’s relationship to her, but Molly isn’t really the point. Andrew is the point.

Andrew is the narrator’s oldest friend and now a friend of both her and Molly. They went to college together in Ireland, and then he went on to become a wildly successful art historian. The narrator herself (nameless, by the way) became a pretty successful playwright, and Molly Fox is an actress and ‘generally regarded as one of the finest of her generation’. I.e. we have three friends who are all to some degree ‘famous’, which is probably my biggest issue with this book – I found it rather unrealistic. Particularly because they became friends before they all became wildly successful in their respective fields. Perhaps I could’ve accepted it if they had meet each other *as* famous people. That happens.

Back to Andrew. He is by far the most interesting character and Madden’s writing is at its very best whenever he is involved. Where the writing stumbled a bit was whenever she had to go back to the framework – Molly Fox’ birthday. Now it’s this time a day, now the narrator is doing this or that in Molly’s house, and there are quite a few instances of ‘while I had been thinking about this, I had done so and so’. It becomes a bit awkward, honestly. I wish she would just have written all this in the past tense without the framework dragging her back out of the memories again and again. Of course, the framework serves a few purposes, but the coincidences there seemed almost too perfect (kind of like the unlikeliness of the three famous friends).

Despite the few annoyances I have mentioned, I actually enjoyed this. It hasn’t got the best reviews, which probably gave me realistic expectations, but I genuinely think this is a good book with something to say. If you enjoy books without plot, this could be for you. If you don’t, this is not for you at all. I have also read very little Irish literature – if any – and I liked the few insights this gave me into another (sometimes troubled) culture.

Rating: 3.5 stars

/NK

[Paula Dembeck · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful short novel and my initiation to Madden’s writing.

The unnamed narrator is staying at her friend’s house, struggling to get past writer’s block and begin her new play. She has an idea into the story, but cannot develop the hook that will let the story unfold before her. After a string of very successful plays, her last one was a disappointment or to be less generous, a complete flop, and she is decidedly wary as she begins this one. Molly Fox, her friend for over twenty years and in whose house she is staying, is an actor currently working in New York and London. She has graciously offered her home in Dublin to give the narrator a place of peace and quiet in which to write.

At Molly’s house the playwright has her breakfast and prepares to begin her writing at the small desk she has set up in the bedroom. Although highly disciplined, she is distracted by a number of things in Molly’s house and its garden. She begins to reminisce about times past, how she first met Molly and how they moved from a very successful professional relationship to become close friends. As the years moved on, that friendship encompassed others including Andrew, a well-known art historian, Fergus, Molly’s troubled and alcoholic brother and Tom the narrator’s brother who is also a priest.

It just happens that today is Molly’s birthday, a day she never celebrates. As the playwright looks at the books and various bric-a-brac in the house, she thinks about her friend, admiring her ability to create a home for herself. It is then she notices the grotesque, shiny, fiberglass cow in the back garden among the fragrant flowers and beautiful vines. It is absolutely jarring to the sensibilities and she wonders how Molly (her friend with the linen bathrobe), could ever have chosen such a monstrosity and placed it in this serene setting. It is so tawdry and so unlike something she could imagine Molly choosing. It is at that point that she begins to speculate about how well she really knows her friend. The more she thinks about it, the more elusive Molly becomes. She remembers lies they told one another and betrayals they have never acknowledged. This leads her to question whether anyone can really know another person despite the length and depth of their friendship. She begins to understand that friendship is not a window to another’s being, but is better described as an opaque piece of glass through which a friend can glimpse only that which the other chooses to share with the world. She also comes to realize she does not know those who she would consider to be her closest friends and asks herself: What is it to really know someone?

She examines her relationship with her friend Andrew who she has known since college when he was a struggling and scruffy art student. Haunted by the early death of his younger brother, he never felt close to his family. But he is someone who has completely transformed himself over the years to become the person he has always wanted to be, raising himself up from his lower middle class family to becoming an acknowledged leader in art history with a successful and satisfying career.

She also remembers her encounters with Molly’s brother Fergus, a morose and depressive individual
who seemed haunted by an abusive childhood. In the beginning when she first knew him, he always seemed vulnerable and tragic, but as the novel unfolds he seems to be one of the wisest in the group.

And then there is Tom, the narrator’s brother and a priest in a small parish. As the oldest in their large rambunctious family, he left home early to be with his books, his thoughts and his desire to lead a very different life than that of his brothers and sisters. He has always had a close relationship with his youngest sister, and it was he who first turned her on to plays, books and the arts.

The story unfolds within the scope of an entire day, which provides an opportunity for the author to share many interesting and thought provoking ideas. She explores the theatrical experience, the profession of acting and actors themselves who spend their lives pretending to be someone else. There are interesting and thought provoking passages on theology and agnostic beliefs. She examines the personalities that individuals in public roles play whether they are actors, playwrights, TV personalities or priests and the facets of their personalities they show to the public which are often different from those they show to their family and friends. She shares her thoughts on friendship of various kinds, between siblings, between individuals in professional relationships and between lovers.

This may not be a book for everyone. It is a book about ideas and should not be approached as a hurried read. There is no driving plot and really, not much happens. But it does have beautiful language and a quiet, leisurely and very charming way of proceeding to tell its tale, forcing you to slow down, listen and think. It is complex at times (I still have not yet figured out the significance of Molly’s birthday falling on the summer solstice) and contemplative.
If you need a nice change from some of your present reading this may just fit the bill.
Shortlisted for the Orange Prize in 2008.
A highly recommended read from this talented and gifted writer.

[Elizabeth Urello · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short novel deals with a surprising number of themes (art, theater, religion, The Troubles, the nature of the self), but to me, it is most interestingly about intimacy, friendship and communication, and about how sometimes a certain distance is essential to a more meaningful and lasting closeness between people.

The story’s narrator is a renowned playwright who has temporarily house-swapped with her good friend, Molly Fox, a famous stage actor. Molly lives in Dublin and the narrator is borrowing her house in order to work on a new play. The action takes place over the course of a single day, Molly’s birthday. Molly herself is in New York, and emphatically does not recognize her birthday, since it is also the anniversary of her mother’s abandonment. The relationships between Molly, the narrator, a third friend, Andrew, and their families are mostly explored through the narrator’s reminiscences throughout the day, but as evening falls, the characters we’ve been introduced to appear in person.

The narrator is a playwright from a big, loving, conventional family she never felt she could truly fit in with. She is closest to her eldest brother, Tom, a Catholic priest. At college, the narrator befriends Andrew, a disgruntled academic who resents his small, vulgar family and his older brother, a Loyalist paramilitary who is later murdered. Later, the narrator meets Molly Fox, who also has a close, complicated relationship with her troubled brother, Fergus.

These three friends are self-contained, undemonstrative people who remain close - but not too close - over the years without really ever acknowledging the nature of their connections. Molly is repeatedly described by everybody as particularly difficult to know (“Molly doesn’t do intimacy.”). She throws out important information and personal confessions at noisy, odd moments, but spends long, quiet evenings revealing nothing at all. The narrator, a playwright, is a keen observer of human nature and spends paragraphs describing the minutiae of any particular interaction while (sometimes hilariously) missing its broader implications entirely.

All the characters are particularly interested in objects - knick-knacks, jewelry, clothing - and these symbols are dwelt on in great detail. People are contained and known entirely through these tokens of their person, even when they themselves are absent. As the narrator wonders upon waking in Molly’s bedroom in the novel’s first pages: “What kind of woman has a saffron quit on her bed? Wears a white linen dressing gown? Keeps beside her bed a stack of gardening books?”

Thus, Andrew’s brother is contained in a ring. Molly’s house, with its carefully considered tokens, is more expressive about her life than she ever is herself. Andrew comes to know the world through the contemplation of artistic objects, and his own laborious personal transformation is entirely described by the clothes he wears and the way he furnishes his home.

In a representative passage, the narrator is angered by Molly’s ironic purchase of a fiberglass cow because, she says, “What bothered me most about this was that I had thought I knew Molly well. We had been friends for over twenty years now, and with the exception of Andrew, she was the last person I would have expected to go in for this type of whimsy. . . . I wondered why I hadn’t said this to her. I had always thought we knew each other well enough to be completely honest, at least about something as trivial as this.”

After wondering about the saffron quilt and the white linen dressing gown in the scene quoted above, the narrator interrupts herself: “I was reluctant to pursue this line of thought because I suddenly realized that, lying in my bed in London next week, she might do exactly the same thing to me. Given her particular gift she would be able to reconstruct me, to know me much better than I might wish myself to be known, especially by such a close friend.”

“Especially by such a close friend,” “at least about something as trivial as this” … these sort of qualifiers are frequently included as if they would be self-evident to anyone, because these friends respect nothing so much as each other’s space. As the narrator sits with Andrew in the garden at the end of the day, she tells us, “He fell silent again, and as he sat there quietly thinking about all of this, I almost did something extraordinary, something that might have ruined the delicacy of the moment. I almost closed my hand gently over his hand, where it lay resting on the table.”

That she does not do so, and would never do so, is the key to these three people - their reserve is probably the reason for their friendships’ longevity, but, as the narrator perhaps realizes too late, it is also what keeps them from establishing anything more. For the reader, however, it is what makes these people and this novel so interesting, endearing and unique.

[Anne McLoughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actress Molly lends her house in Dublin to a playwright friend. This book has lots of fascinating characters, each with an interesting backstory – including one relating to their mutual friend, art historian Andrew who has shed his Northern Ireland roots. Wonderful descriptions of Molly’s red brick Victorian quirky terraced house – lovely to visit but a nightmare to dust with all the copper, brass, china, kilims – all jewel colours. The iron gate and tiled pathway to the hall door and the raspberry canes growing in the garden. Reminded me of my grandparents house. Lovely atmospheric scene drinking champagne with Andrew in the dark of the evening garden on Molly’s birthday. Molly is a mysterious figure, almost seems peripheral to the story, hardly features other than as an ‘extra’, but somehow it works in this lovely book. The only criticism I’d have is that there was far too much detail about Andrew’s TV series on memorials. We could have done without the blow by blow account of every shot and line of script in the documentary. Had little relevance to the story – it could have been a newspaper review of his programme. Apart from that a lovely read and an interesting cast.

[Emma · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m sorry this book was really boring

[Lynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the arc of the summer solstice Madden creates a story of three very disparate characters whose lives intersect in the background of a divided Ireland. The house in which the story is set is outwardly beautiful but redolent with memory and mystery. Maddens prose is seductive and sparse at the same time. I do enjoy Irish authors and she is a favourite

[Roger · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Molly Fox’s Birthday"
It’s been said that writers should write about the kind of people they actually know. It appears that Deirde Madden started to follow that advice in “Molly Fox’s Birthday”. Madden is a successful Irish novelist(this is her eighth novel), and she decided to write about three successful Irish intellectuals: a playwright (the unnamed narrator), an eminent art critic turned television celebrity (Andrew Foote), and a charismatic stage actress (Molly Fox). Then, the playwright-narrator begins to realize that she doesn’t actually know very much about her best friends. Then, she begins to wonder what it really is to know someone.

She has known Andrew since they were fellow students at Trinity. She has seen him create an entirely new persona (from scruffy student of working-class parentage to nattily dressed art critic with no hint of his earlier Belfast accent). But, she decides that he hasn’t been false to his old self. Instead, she concludes that he has arduously created the self that he knew was latent within himself. She also notices that he is never more like his real self than when he is talking to the TV camera about art. His identity is self-created and it reaches its full expression in his work (and not in any intimate relationship).

Similarly, Molly Fox is most herself when she is at work on stage -- losing herself in a fictional character’s identity. The narrator muses that artificial things (like religious rituals and stage acting) can seem more real than everyday life.

Similarly, the narrator is most sure of one thing and that is that she is a playwright to the core. That is her constant identity.
So we have three characters whose truest selves are expressed in work that we don’t see. It is kind of like watching an excellent biopic about Mozart, but realizing that his real self lay in his music.

Still, this is an extremely intelligent and civilized novel. If you are weary of reading about war and riot and gangbangers and drug abuse and depersonalized sex, you might want to spend an evening with Molly Fox.

[Rebecca H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A friend mentioned a while back that she enjoyed Molly Fox’s Birthday by Dierdre Madden, so I picked it up from the library and gave it a try myself and found that I enjoyed it very much too. The novel has a structure that I like: it takes place over the course of one day, with frequent jumps back in time to describe scenes from the past. The title character, Molly Fox, doesn’t appear at all, except in a phone conversation. Instead, the novel is narrated by her friend, an unnamed woman who is a playwright. Molly is an actress, and the two met while preparing to stage a production of the narrator’s first play with Molly in the starring role. It’s a play that will make both their reputations and send them off into successful careers.

But all that happens far back in the novel’s past; in the present tense, the two women are a older (it’s Molly’s 40th birthday, or at least we presume so; she is secretive about her age, as she believes actresses need to be). The narrator is living temporarily in Molly’s house in Dublin while Molly is traveling, and she is trying to write her next play. Over the course of the day, she struggles with her writing, takes a walk into town, and unexpectedly meets an old friend for dinner. It seems like a quiet day on the outside, but all the drama is of the interior sort: the narrator spends her day thinking about her art and her friendships and also about how she and others have been shaped by their pasts.

The third main character is Andrew, the unexpected dinner guest, and a man the narrator has known since their university days when they used to take study breaks together. Andrew and Molly both have difficult relationships with their families. Andrew is passionately devoted to the arts but comes from a family indifferent to them, and his brother died a violent death at a young age. Molly’s mother abandoned her while Molly was still a child, and her brother has struggled with severe depression his entire life.

You can find the rest of the review at Of Books and Bicycles

[Arti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Molly Fox's Birthday was on the long list of the 2009 Orange Prize. Despite the title and the look of the book cover, it's not chic lit. It's not about celebrating a birthday either.

The book is set on a single day, Molly Fox's birthday, June 21st, the summer solstice. Molly Fox is a popular and gifted theatre actor. On that day, the narrator of the book is staying at Molly's home in Dublin while Molly has gone on a trip to New York. Nothing much happens really on Molly's birthday, a day that she doesn't even celebrate.

The narrator is a playwright who has enjoyed acclaims at one time but is now going through a low period in her career. On this day, she is struggling with writer's block. While she is staying in Molly's home trying to start a new play, she is preoccupied with memories and pondering. She reminisces on her longtime friendship with Molly, who was initially propelled to fame when she performed in the narrator's debut play.

Through her quiet recollections, the narrator describes how their lives intertwine with two other significant characters, Molly's brother Fergus and their mutual friend Andrew, who is from Northern Ireland. The political events that happend during the past decades had shattered his family. A successful art historian living in London now, Andrew is still haunted by disturbing memories. And Fergus is another personality which the narrator finds intriguing to discover slowly.

Sometimes it's just a gut feeling that you like a book. As you're reading, there's a gentle push that prompts you forward, reinforcing your favor as you slowly go along... even though 'nothing much happens'. To go beyond feeling is what I need to do now. Let me try to organise my thoughts:

First it's the voice. Often that's the first thing that draws me into the story. Throughout the book, the narrator is unnamed. Her voice is casual, understated, and her tone is occasionally self-deprecating: "... I was in the supporting role: ever the stooge..." For some reason, I'm instantly drawn to such remarks.


To read my full review, CLICK HERE.

[Keri · Rating 1 out of 5]

I won this book from the giveaways on this site. Being this was my first win, I was highly excited, especially due to the interesting book description! I started reading it today and much to my surprise I was very much disappointed! I honestly don't feel that I was able to live the book ever, as I do with every book! I try to put myself in the characters position but I had a very hard time doing this with this book. Not only was the story dull and uneventful it honestly didn't have an interesting story line or a hook, line and sinker! I kept reading and waiting for the main story line but in my opinion all it kept describing were certain persons the story teller knew in their life! It did describe the play and talk about how the character was trying to finish but to me, that isn't what I thought this book would be about! I guess what I should really say is in my honest opinion there was no plot! It was like this one the first chapter in a huge book and I just waiting for it!

I do want to mention that I loved the way the book was made, the cover was heavy yet flexible and the pages were thick. Alot of thought went into the way the book was made and I for one appreciate that!! I also appreciate the chance to read and review this book, it was an enjoyable experience!

[Ruby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, I thought this was really good. A bit distanced perhaps, which made full love impossible. That was also due to the way this novel was constructed: the narrator would remember something, the memory would be shared and then there would be a new paragraph, starting along the lines of: "I noticed that ten minutes had passed while I remembered this". I believe this kept the story from truly flowing.

These minor things aside, I thought it was a very clean, intelligent and inspiriring novel. The references to art, theatre and literature fitted in perfectly with the rest of the story. I liked its quietness.

[Lauren F. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was that rare novel that was intelligent, insightful, and moving while also being a page-turner. It really made me think about the nature of relationships, how and why we connect, and how well we really know ourselves and each other. Heady topics for sure, but I couldn't put this book down. And somehow Deirdre Madden is able to tell this sweeping story about three friends—and their very different families—in the span of a single day in Dublin.

[Eileen Sainsbury · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it shows great insight into relationships and how little we actually know about other people outside our own relationship. I am just going to re-read it, I read it a few months ago and have been thinking about it ever since!

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything here happens “off-stage,’ that is, people tell one another stories....
Failures, death, wounds... all here. Nothing really happens and yet somehow everything does. This is a very warm book, filled with bright, round characters.